The Importance
of Slugs
Why do we need slugs?
The nemesis of a keen gardener is a very important link in the food chain, birds love to eat them. Thrush, which can be seen and heard, in Riverside, adore snails and hedgehogs love eating slugs. Earth worms are very important for your soil formation also rely on slugs for food.
Slugs also eat and breakdown decomposing vegetation in your garden, another essential job to keep your garden glorious.
We understand that most people don’t want their garden ravaged by slugs and snails but many methods of getting rid of them can harm other wildlife too – slug pellets can kill hedgehogs too, pesticides with ‘metaldehyde’ is known to enter waterways and into our drinking water which can spread through the food chain and harm other wildlife too.
If you would consider making your garden slug friendly, or dedicate an area as a safe haven here are some suggestions to help keep your plants protected but keep an essential food source for the birds of Riverside.
Not all methods will work for all slugs, especially the determined ones, but these methods have all been recorded as having some effect so we hope this will help keep your garden beautiful and support biodiversity too.
Things Slugs Love
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Citrus – use peels to lure them away from your plants
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Pet Food, Beer and Honey - an excellent food stuff to lure them into traps for relocation.
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Scarlet Sage and Tropical sage – these will attract slugs
Things Slugs Hate
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Mint, sage, hysop, chives, garlic, fennel, geraniums, ferns, cyclamen, hydrangeas, Californian poppy, nasturtium and lantana and foxgloves
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Heavily scented plants like lavender, rosemary, begonias and sage
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These can be planted to be used as a deterrents in your slug free area.
Things that inhibit Slugs movement
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Dried Pine Needles
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Crushed Egg Shells
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Sawdust
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Hair – it gets tangled around their bodies
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Petroleum Jelly – putting this on the rims of plant pots this makes it harder for slugs to grip.
Destroying The Slug Trail
Destroying the slug trail makes it unlikely any other slugs will follow the leader as they use the trails as a guide.
Water Plants During The Day
Slugs love the damp but hate the sun, so they hide during the day. If you do your watering first thing, by the time they come out, there will be less damp places for them to enjoy.
Pick Them Off By Hand
Wait until the sun has gone down and collect any offending slugs and relocate them at least 6.1 metres away -this appears to be the most sucessful
Attract Birds
Make your garden inviting for all sorts of bird species and they will eat all the slugs for you.
Make A Slug Lure
Slugs hide during the day so you can place a hidden sunken container in the dark and using a tasty lure, collect them for relocation.